Saturday, January 30, 2010

Al Borgo Italian Restaurant ...... a cosy homey Italian restaurant

Last lazy Sunday afternoon. HY was asleep on our comfy sofa, with her green tea half drunk and the Hong Kong serial playing on the TV screen. I was just beside enjoying my Vietnamese drip coffee and bread with my home-made peanut butter. I had my Macbook on my lap, slouching on the sofa. My left hand sending bread with peanut butter to my mouth and my right hand, with one finger typing my food diary. Beeping from my cellphone pierce through the idllic quietness of the Sunday afternoon. It was W who suggested meeting up for Italian dinner. I googled up some venues and I suggested Al Borgo that has an address that seem to match my mood.

Al Borgo is located opposite the Singapore Chinese Girls' School and, on the ground floor of an old apartment. The restaurant has a simple decor and a cosy, homely atmosphere.

Even though we claimed that we would like a light dinner, we ended up with quite a bit of food too. Here's what we had.

Deep Fried Calamari

Even though I would prefer my calamari to be crispier and more golden brown, Al Borgo's calamari was quite good. The squid was tender inside. No trace of squid was left on the plate after we were done with it.

Seafood with rich tomato soup. This soup was tasty but was too rich to be classified as soup. It was so rich that it can be used as tomato base pasta sauce.

Bistecca alla Florentina

750 gms of Prime cut T-bone steak. Al Borgo recommends the steak to be best eaten medium rare. W and I decided to share this dish as this was early dinner and half a loaf of bread and half my container of peanut butter still lined my stomach. I couldn't appreciate the Florentina steak. My poorly maintained set of teeth didn't allow me to enjoy the the meat as I would like to. Poor old man. HY thought it was good. W who had travelled to Florence to have Steak Florentina thought it was as good as what he had before. The two real beef eaters' comments count in this case.

Nodino di Maiale alla brace

Pork chop. I liked HY's pork chop more than my steak Florentina. It was the first time we were ask how we would like our pork chop done. I always thought pork chop must be well done (You can call me 'swa gu' or ignorant). This medium well pork chop was tender, lightly salted and well scented from the use of Rosemary. The sliced potatoes that were served as sides were quite good.

Tiramisu

We always love discovering good tiramisu and Al Borgo certainly served good ones. It was well soaked with liquor, not overly done. What I liked most was the fine cookie crumbs that was sprinkled on top of the soft tiramisu.

Service was prompt, friendly and attentive. When we were done with the mains and attacking the dessert, Chef Domenico Truglia came out to check on us to make sure that the dishes were up to our standards. Of course I didn't tell him that I prefer Bella Pizza's Portobello Ripieno but the rest of the food were truly marvelous.